Awkward, skier having to climb before retiring (6)
I believe the answer is:
bolshy
'awkward' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'skier having to climb before retiring' is the wordplay.
'skier' becomes 'lob' (both can mean a very high throw).
'having to climb' says the letters should be written in reverse (in a down clue, letters go up).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'retiring' becomes 'shy' (I've seen this before).
'lob' back-to-front is 'bol'.
'bol'+'shy'='BOLSHY'
(Other definitions for bolshy that I've seen before include "Deliberately combative" , "stroppy" , "Awkward" .)